March 01, 2005

A cool, married couple we know passed on a bit of information that was announced in January: Netflix now offers the holy grail of queue management! Yes, at last, you can create different queues for each member of the household and automatically rotate which movies are shipped. Read Hacking Netflix for a complete report.

My dream feature would be the ability to categorize movies and then have them shipped according to a sort of category rotation.
One family might setup a category for each person and then have it
rotate between family members (one for dad, one for mom, one for the
kids, then one for dad, etc...). Another house, however, might setup
categories based on type (one action, one drama, one comedy, one
family, one documentary, etc...). The queue would just send the next
available movie in the rotation.

I hope Netflix knows where to send my residuals :)

Unfortunately, I am a committed Blockbuster Online customer due to the great price, in-store coupons, and lightening fast turnaround in the DFW area (1-day each way). I do hope that Blockbuster responds to the competition and releases a major update to their queue in the near future - it is easily the weakest part of the site.

December 02, 2004

The next time you can't think of a single decent movie to rent or your queue is in desperate need of a refresh, look for a title that could literally change your life: Super Size Me.

This is an unforgettable documentary. Super Size Me tells the tale of fast food in America, primarily McDonald's. Following a lawsuit brought by two overweight teenagers, which attempted to hold fast food companies responsible for their obesity (later dismissed), the author and director was determined to do something. So, he decided to eat McDonald's three times a day for 30 days in order to measure the physical effects on his body, and make a movie about it.

The film follows him throughout the entire process and the results are staggering. There is also a great deal of information on the current obesity problem we face in America, particularly among students. If your child attends a typical elementary school, you must see this film.

I told Lori, an avid Starbucks lover, that someones needs to make a movie called Venti Me about life in the Starbucks Nation. She didn't think that was very funny, but then, you know how irritable caffeine can make a person (ha!).

November 11, 2004

The family and I went to see The Incredibles tonight to celebrate Ben's report card. It's become a bit of a tradition with each report card to share a family movie night of some kind. Tonight may have been the best one yet.

The Incredibles is truly a fantastic movie. I am amazed with each new Pixar film at the attention to detail, as well as the attention to the story. Each film has built on the one before, pushing both the animation and the story's depth and heart further. Whereas nearly every company attempts to develop a single successful formula and then repeat it endlessly (see Chicken Soup for the Astronaut's Soul), Pixar refuses to become predictable. The similarity to Steve Job's other company is obvious.

The film itself is beautiful to look at, exciting, funny, and terribly interesting. The characters are infinitely more complex and original than the typical short, annoying sidekick. And any film that employs Sarah Vowell for her voice has my respect for a lifetime. Only Pixar would obsessively pursue the right voices for each character (including Holly Hunter) rather than simply sign the biggest names for the movie poster. In another nod to the total focus on the story, the voice actors are not promoted on the print pieces, or at the start of the movie. In fact, the names appear about five minutes into the credits and are onscreen for less than 20 seconds.

Each of the Bailey's loved every minute of this film. For more rave reviews, visit Wired and Roger Ebert.

November 10, 2004

How often do you see a company significantly change its corporate reputation?

If I were writing this post six months ago, any Blockbuster lessons would be about what not to do. Blockbuster has always been one of my least favorite companies, due to their relentless pursuit of average. In my opinion, the Blockbuster approach is an average store with average selection and average customer service, leading to, you guessed, an average experience. And for this, they charge high prices! On the flip side, you basically cannot avoid them, which explains the approach.

The zenith of my Blockbuster experience came a few months ago when I asked if I could get a copy of my rental history, assuming that all the data was right in front of them, or at least would be if any of my movies were overdue. Here's how the process went:

1. Clerk looks at me with complete disbelief2. Clerk starts to look for help, but then decides to find out if I really need this, assuming that I'm questioning a late fee or something3. I convince him that I really just want a list of the movies I've rented (I keep a running tally)4. Clerk admits that it seems logical that they would have the information available, but he believes there is a form that needs to be filled out5. Clerk looks for form for 10 minutes, then finally asks for my name and number so he can follow-up6. To their credit, I do receive a call, two days later7. New clerk says that he found the form, but I need to complete a few more steps8. First, return to my local store9. Next, sign the document, which will be faxed to the corporate office10. Wait 2-4 weeks11. And just like that, I will receive my rental history, in the mail!

Needless to say, I passed. Despite this and other similar experiences, I decided to give the new Blockbuster Online service a try during the beta release. After over two months of thoroughly enjoying the service, I received an email that shows just how far the online group is going to improve Blockbuster's reputation.

The email was one of the best examples I've seen of proactive customer service that builds loyalty.

First, thank you. Second, we apologize for any issues our growth has caused. Third, here are the concrete steps were taking to solve any problems (before you have even complained). Fourth, here's a gift of appreciation ($8 worth of movies - no strings attached). And this is after they lowered their monthly price by $3 per month.

A reasonable explanation for this aggressiveness is the intense competition Blockbuster faces in the online rental business. I honestly think this is exactly right. If Blockbuster ever came to dominate this industry as it does physical stores, I doubt I would be receiving too many more of these emails. Nevertheless, I will enjoy the wonderful benefits of competition, and attempt to apply these lessons in my own organization.

Because of loyal members like you, BLOCKBUSTER Online has surpassed our growth expectations. While we're thrilled so many movie fans have turned to BLOCKBUSTER Online, The Movie Store At Your Door, we know our rapid growth may have impacted our service to you.

We recognize the need to continuously improve and we are taking the following steps to do just that:

FASTER SHIPPING

The U.S. Postal Service will now notify us when the envelope containing the DVD you are returning has been scanned in. This means we will send you your next movie before we actually receive the returned one. This means quicker turnaround times for you.

We are adding 10 new shipping locations in the coming months to speed more movies to your door.

MORE COPIES

We are buying more copies of both new releases and old favorites. This should reduce the time you wait for your favorite titles to ship.

PLUS, 2 BONUS E-COUPONS

We appreciate you using our service while we work to make improvements. We have added TWO E-Coupons to your account. These coupons are in addition to the coupons you receive every month, and they can be redeemed for FREE in-store game and movie rentals at participating BLOCKBUSTER® stores.

September 10, 2004

According to HackingNetflix.com, Netflix has at last released RSS feeds. Not only do they include community feeds such as top rentals and new releases, but you can generate a personal feed for your own queue and rental history.

Unfortunately, I am currently a Blockbuster customer, so I can only hope that Blockbuster continues to flatter Netflix with their imitation!

July 30, 2004

Ever the early adopter, I signed up for Blockbuster's beta release of their new online movie rental service. Here are my first impressions.

1. If you live in the Dallas area, don't be concerned with delivery time. Blockbuster clearly has a major distribution center (their only?) in Dallas as I've regularly received movies one day after shipping. In fact, I signed up on a Friday around 1:00 in the afternoon, filled my queue, and received three movies in the mail at noon on Saturday.

2. The Blockbuster mailers are 95% identical to the Netflix version, the only difference being slightly higher quality paper and small tweaks to the sealing process.

3. Even though the program is still in early release, and presumably is underused currently, I already have two movies that are flagged as Very Long Wait, though nearly everything else is Available Now.

4. The site is clearly beta for a reason. I have odd occurences on the site, particularly being sent to the login screen as if my session had timed out, even though I had remained active. I've also had new movies ship before old movies are returned, to the point when I had four movies out at once, even though the plan is for three. And do not try to submit your credit card information on a Mac using anything other than an IE browser.

5. The two coupons for in-store rentals are provided online each month to print out and take to the store. I haven't had the opportunity to try them, but they do expire after one month. Everytime I describe the Blockbuster offering to anyone, by the far the biggest selling points are being $2 cheaper than Netflix and the two free in-store rentals each month, which overcomes the main limitation of online rentals, instant gratification!

My main disappointment with Blockbuster Online is that they had the chance to fix the most frustrating part of the Netflix site and decided to imitate instead. Which piece? The queue.

On both sites, your pending movie queue is a single long list (typically 30+) of titles with numeric text boxes next to each one. If you want to reorder your movies, you have to change the numbers of each movie you want to move and then click update. Imagine if you decide to move #20 to #5, and move every other movie down one. You would actually have to change every movie between #5 and #20 before hitting submit.

Compare that to how Typepad allows you organize your individual content sections by simply dragging the titles to where you want them and then adjusting the rest as necessary. With the amount of money and development going into each of these sites, I am sure they have the ability to develop a more intuitive, user-friendly, drag-and-drop version.

Overall, I've been very pleased with the Blockbuster service. The price and value are there, the selection had been very complete so far, and everything has worked very well for a beta program.

This was much better than I thought it would be. All three of us loved it. Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt were both terrific. Even though it's primary purpose was laughter, the movie managed to make a few well-placed points about family priorities. This was definitely a case where the previews failed to capture the film.

Seeing Garfield involved a fun trip to the theatre with Ben and one of his friends. The highlight was hearing the two of them giggle throughout. Even though Roger Ebert loved it, I still was surprised at how enjoyable it was. There were a couple of forced parts, by Bill Murray is so much fun to listen to as a cat that it's easy to ignore them.